Eric Cantor’s tea party terrorism threatens America

To the tea party terrorists who put their extremist agenda ahead of the best interests of the nation, bombastic Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Cantor is a hero of monumental proportions.

To opponents, however, Cantor is a political Osama bin Laden, a political bomb thrower who threatens send the financial skyscrapers of the nation’s economy crashing to the ground in a dust cloud of chaos and discord.

Even Republicans complain private about Cantor’s antics and leaders of the party gather in small, closed-door groups to discuss how to stop their own majority leader from destroying the party and the nation.

Democrats, meanwhile, zero in on Cantor’s extremism and use it to claim Republicans don’t give a damn about the nation, the economy and the future.

But the party’s problems go far beyond Cantor and the nation’s ills go back to the 2010 elections when voters — fed up with the status quo — put too many tea party extremists into office and gave them a voice they did not deserve.

Cantor and those of his ilk represent a cancer that is spreading throughout Congress, the American political system and the nation at large — a notion that compromise is bad, cooperation is unthinkable and coalitions are evil.

What’s good for America is secondary to the extremists like Cantor and those who embrace him: The only thing that matters is an extreme, right-wing agenda driven not by the the claimed “grassroots,” but by two power-mad billionaire brothers named Koch.

Cantor is their weapon of mass detraction who — like them — substitutes service to country with ego.

Cantor is a madman but he is one with a well-funded, private-agenda-driven power base that will stop at nothing to seize power and subvert what little is left of the democratic process in this country.

He — and those who follow him — represent a clear and present danger to the United States of America and they must be stopped before it is too late.

Comments

IF CANTOR SUPPORTS THE WEALTHY: THEN IT IS JUST AS WILL ROGERS SAID, THERE IS NOT A WEALTHY PERSON LIVING THAT DID NOT MAKE THE WEALTH OFF THE BACK OF THE COMMON PERSON.
HE SUPPORTS CUTS IN PROGRAMS THAT THAT DO NOT EFFECT THE WEALTHY PEOPLE ONLY THE OTHER PEOPLE. IF THAT IS NOT ONE
SIDED THINKING, THEN I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS !!!

Give it a rest, bob… get your grammar straight, first… that would be “affect” not “effect”… and then realize that you haven’t advocated or clarified anything yet, just spewed a bunch of capital letters.

How so Al ?
It appears to me that between Cantor, McConnell, and the freshman class of ineptitude their only bent is to destroy the sitting puppet by obstructing any and all legislation be it good or bad.

From my view they should all be brought up on charges for dereliction duty as per their of oath of office. Obstruction for the sake of itself is treason, period.

Well, Bryan, I don’t agree with “business as usual” politics, which is the opposite of what you’ve labeled obstruction. I don’t believe in all the spending on any manner of worthless cause called “public good”. I don’t believe in making citizens the dependents of the state, which about half have become. I don’t believe in taking the fruits of labor from one citizen and giving them to another. THUS, I don’t believe that anyone trying to change all that America has become is a treasonous, political terrorist.

I do believe in liberty and the right to self-determination. We’ve lost most of what we had in that regard… and whatever the “obstructionists” can do to reestablish lost liberty and self-determination, I’m All For.

At least I KNOW what the “business as usual” crowd has in mind regarding the monetary madness. As for the Patriot Act… a universal blight upon liberty and self-determination promulgated by them all. One problem at a time…

Here are the facts the American Economy is in trouble and everybody knows what needs to be done, but Cantor won’t come to this “tea party”…i don’t actually agree with most of what you said Almandine but even if i did you need to get through the financial crisis to have those things. Its called sacrifice, put others first. You really think these high paying jobs will be around if you follow this Moron. Just so you are aware the rest of the world shakes their head at people like Cantor and gives a horrible impression of American politics

thumbs up. Bipartisanship and serving the interest of political agendas is first and foremost on their minds. We are able to vote them in, we should be able to vote them out for non performance, just like any other job.

Eric Cantor is wrong not to seek a compromise! He is one one the good old boy club that wants this country to become like Mexico in economics.
He has no use for anyone that does not see his way!
Well smart guy where is all the oil royalty that is woed to the US Treasury?
200 Billion dollars maybe? He is a supporter of the rich and wealthy in this country and the middle american can go to the devil!
Simplify the tax code before you do anything, but he is not smart enough or is just a contary mule.
A lot of repbulicans say he is too extreme in his views!
Thanks a lot ERIC CANTOR FOR TAKING THE ROAD OF NO RETURN FOR THIS COUNTRY> YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM AND NOT THE SOLUTION

Nice way to lead by example Doug. Didn’t you suggest toning down the rhetoric and threaten to exclude such style of posting?

Apparently terrorism covers a wide range of activities. Isn’t that a large part of the problem?

The rest of the jibberish is about the obvious. We don’t call it “power” for no reason. Add me to the group that can no longer vote for anyone as a method to change anything.

I’m also sick of the ideology that If THEY didn’t do XYZ things would be worse.

Why does S&P and Moodys still have a voice? Was anyone punished for their fraud in the events leading up to this mess? Same with Greenspam and Bernanke. Alan admitted his thinking was flawed for the last 40 years and suddenly the old dog has learned new tricks? Who should care? Where was his pain?

I would like to see a default, and fullfillment of the threats against business as usual. I don’t have great confidence in the public trying to unwind the stupidity without more pressure on the unwashed masses.

I picked up on this story via SG’s handle which led to the “3CHICSPOLITICO” site last evening SG post to this site, but I was unaware that the handle was a site link. Regardless, I thought the story quite fascinating.

Seemingly Eric Cantor has a conflict of interest relative to his position in negotiating a timely budget in order preclude default and the associated market perturbations that go along with such. He needs to liquidate his short U.S. Treasury holdings or stand down from his position as a negotiator. I’m supplying a link to “The Daily Kos” concerning this issue.

This reminds me of the financial ‘dirtbags’ that shorted the overall markets just prior to 9/11. There were investigations, but they led back to brick wall in Germany’s financial markets, but there were high suspicions that wealthy arabs had done so along with their accomplices on Wall Street who also had insider knowledge as to an impending disaster, not the specifics, but a heads up for humongous profits to come in short order.

When shorting any market, timing is essential because the greater trend is your friend, so to do so in front of a bull market via any investment instrument is the equivalent of playing financial chicken with oncoming express train. Allegedly Cantor has lost 31% since he took on the position, but he would have to do such in order to not be so obvious by shorting only a couple of weeks prior to an engineered national bust.

The Republican leadership has the power to remove him from his position if they so choose, but again much of this ‘whining’ is simply high theater in order for these duopolists both Democrats and Republicans to do a legislative job on “WE the people” as they’ve done so many times in the past from Bushco’s TARP, Obama’s ‘Stimulus’ Bill, Obamacare et. al. Believe it…!

He certainly terrorizes me. As did every minute of the Bush Presidency. Funny how deficits didn’t matter then, and how is it we lost all those jobs, over all those years after the Bush tax cuts went into effect? There is no word to describe those Americans who subscribe to scare tactics and hatred, for the sole intent of terrorizing people into submission. But then, how else could one produce the illusion that the American people are acquiescing to self imposed slavery?

Funny how deficits mattered to the Democrats then, but don’t any more. Funny how the wars mattered then, but don’t any more. Funny how the policies that led to the financial meltdown were implemented during the Clinton administration. Funny how NAFTA and GATT were enacted during the Clinton administration but the Bush tax cuts are to blame for our jobs going over seas. Funny how we lost all those jobs to Communist China after they joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Funny how we love communism now.

My post to another article curerntly on this site. It fits here just as well.

While it is clearly in fashion to bash Cantor, et al…

A quote from the link: “The move only makes sense if Cantor wants to guard himself against a sudden and imminent collapse in Treasuries. Given the current political climate, his decision to continue to hold onto his short option could mean only one thing: he’s betting the government won’t reach a deal.”

The first sentence is spot on, which is what that type of ETF is geared to do, i.r., guard against dollar devaluation. The second sentence, however, is erroneous, as there could be a number of reasons for his buying into the ETF. Among them, is the appraisal by many of us that the value of the dollar is going down not so much because of the failure to get a debt limit increase – which will actually speed that decline, but that the Obama Administration and the Fed have already damaged the dollar beyond repair.

Anyone as knowledegable as Cantor also has it figured out that the Fed is going to institute QE3, which will further increase inflation and greatly erode the dollar’s worth, making the ETF bet a sure thing. Nothing Cantor – or anyone else in Congress could do – except get a balanced budget based on seriously reducing wasteful spending that would placate the need for more worthless dollars, could avert that outcome. That ain’t gonna happen.

Given that state of affairs, any prudent person with the ability to guard himself against dollar devaluation should/would do so. If you haven’t, better start now and hope it’s not too late.

You’re absolutey correct Almandine concerning Cantor or anyone else protecting their portfolio against dollar devaluation due to endless QE’s and a shear bond market panic associated with investors bailing out of U.S. Treasuries. In this case it’s the Proshares Ultrashort Lehman 20+ U.S. Treasury Bond market symbol TBT. I’ll supply a chart so readers can understand the play.

First of all the instrument is designed to short (sell) the market, so when the trace goes up you are making money and when it goes down you are losing although it’s a short play and not the typical graph of a long market position. It’s also designed via leveraging; ie., gearing to either move twice or trebly as fast in the case of these special ETF’s as the underlying instrument allowing even more money to be made. With options against ETF’s even more money can be wrung out of a market move via more intense gearing.

Supposedly Cantor has only $15,000 invested in this which to me is not an overly large investment and quite possibly is simply a hedge against his USD based holdings. Regardless, to me, it’s still unethical and Congressional leaders such as this should have their money held in trust while holding office and not directly involved with the investments thereof. Per the “3CHICSPOLITICO” site article he’s lost 31% since his purchase of the instrument so possibly it is being managed, not very well I might add, without him being directly involved with his portfolio.

The greater bond market trend for yields is down due to so much hot money fleeing the Eurozone due to its instablities along with movement into commodities and hard assets such as gold, platinum and palladium.
The U.S. Bond market is weak in terms of yields, but the ongoing mythos of “The Full Faith and Credit” of the United States of America still means something to the world and that’s the most sacrosanct value to be maintained by striking a productive, functional budget deal asap.

I personally believe we need both serious Federal spending cuts along with tax increases across a broad base rather than just attacking the tax issue via the income tax. It’s also time for the upper 1% ‘rs to start paying more for the mainenance of this nation along with their insured personal security too via our superb military and nuclear umbrella.

Good reply, Carl… especially about the metals. I have wondered if folks would think he’s unethical to buy physical PM, since in essence it’s the same play as an inverse ETF. Either way, though, Congress has very little control over the actions of the Fed.

Do you find it discomforting that the entire economy is based on speculation? And not a breath of comment that perhaps the Casino Economic Model might be the thing that needs modification. Such modification would, by definition, wreck the “economy”.

If Eric were in Europe during WWII, he’d be herding his countrymen into the cars and telling ’em it was for their own good.
If he’d been in Philly in 1776 we’d still be waiting on a Declaration.
Nilhists of any persausion are wrong.
America was bult on COMPROMISE after CONFRONTATION.
If it’s true that he’s going to make a killing selling short if the USA tanks August 2nd he should be executed for treason.
What he’s doing makes Clinton’s lies about a bj pale in comparison.

I’m glad you picked up the story. Eric Cantor is dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight. He’s a wicked weasel. If Cantor truly cares about “America’s prosperity,” one would have to wonder why he is literally betting against its financial future. It’s a blatant conflict of interest. He has no business sitting in on negotiations.

I’ve always enjoyed your thoughtful posts to this site as well as my long time friend in thought Almandine. I’m somewhat surprised you’d attack him concerning his motives relative to budgets, freedom etc.

Almandine has “fire in the belly” and as far as I’m concerned although we’ve never met personally, he’s the kind of guy I’d like to have defending our position against any enemies of freedom both foreign and domestic for all time and places. You too good buddy along with many if not most of our fellow site members. We’re all in this together…no? : |

*****

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” …Benjamin Franklin post signing the “Declaration of Independence”

When experiencing history, it is somewhat difficult to focus upon what is going on. This nation, as we have known it, is changing. Eric Cantor is typical of the type of catalyst that is bringing about that change. I’ve read his words and listened to him speak, and he strikes me as a Blue Light Special of statesmanship. He is a fool, but history is filled with fools doing things that made great changes in peoples’ lives.

The elevation of Cantor can be assigned to the “leadership” of Barack Obama. I would not even assign the Blue Light Special to him. Our president is one of those people (and we’ve all met them in our lives) who have fantastic IQ’s but can’t pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel. One might say too intelligent for their own good, but in this case its too intelligent for OUR own good.

Cantor will push the envelope as long and as far as he can. His style may be that of a boor, but then he would take that as a compliment. This nation has suffered an economic catastrophe that has been in the making for decades. The decisions leading to the FIRE economy, as Mr. Nemo so kindly pointed out to me some time ago, lit the fire that is consuming the consumer.

The form of government that will accompany such an economy is being set in place. And that government will be as disastrous at the economy is protects.

The consequences of this? Well, as is enshrined in Washington, “For thee, not for me.”

I’m just now trying to pick up some of the new members of the group this weekend. Dick Armey is 100% John Birch Society and I remember his involvement in the group going back to the beginning days of a Christian take over. I have read just about everything written about the Birch Group and attended most of the meetings held in the west coast areas of Los Angeles County. I met Bill Welch during several of his meetings to keep the memberships active. I drove for the Bay Area Blind group in Santa Monica and gladly took many of my mother’s friends to and from the meetings. I figured this would be a harmless group of wealthy Republicans trying to get more involved in political activities.

I was wrong and wandered into a group of Anti-Communist fools who were militant rather than spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is amazing how quickly these Christians can turn ugly when handed a weapon. That right there explains Dick Armey top to bottom. It also explains the concept passed by the Mormons that killing is acceptable if done in the name of Jesus Christ. If one takes the 10 Commandments there is nothing keeping a dedicated Christian from going right down the line of breaking all the rules.The Birch Society is not a Mormon group but after reading the latest book on politics within the faith based group of LDS members there is no distinction at all and it is safe to assume that anything done in the name of Jesus Christ is fine and dandy with true believers.

Martin Luther got himself in a pile of trouble trying to take apart the Pope when it came to his extermination of all pagans and heretics. I attended a Evangelical Revival group meeting in Lake Havasu City in 2000 where the list of heretics was listed out loud and large bibles were used as drums when beaten against men’s boots. Sadly many in the audience were young children and they became enthusiastic as they danced around the adults clapping for the destruction of all whose churches whose names were called out loud. This meeting was called as a response to the new President George W. Bush who was the first President to admit to being a Born-Again Christian. I have no idea how they got my name and address as I had just moved to this city a matter of months before.

How could Christians be a militant army formed against any group of Americans? The difference was explained when one took a group of children raised on television shows instead of reading the books in the libraries. I had no television until 1982 but I had a large library of books at my disposal and in 1982, I opened my own bookstore. I found that those of us who chose not to take on TV cable usage were far more able to understand how millions of Americans had little use for the new media giants like Falwell and the televangelicals. These men were clowns and no competition when it came to understanding the abuse from groups like the Birch Society.

I made another observation during those years of early Birch meetings. Many who attended the Birch Meetings also attended Alcoholics Anonymous. It fit the scenario in my world. There is nothing wrong with trying to help others develop better habits and learn to live within society without blaming others for all our problems. It is easier to bring in some occult voodoo concepts than face the honest truth about who we are and what we want.

When I finally had to admit that I was not and never had been a Christian; then and only then, would Arizona deny my participation to be part of the state GOP. Obviously, anyone who was able to claim to be no part of the Christian Churches was too strong an individual to be allowed into the Republican Party.

The truly religious part of the Christian churches would understand the utter nonsense of this predicament. I also believe that Jefferson and Madison had a deep fear of this Christian thinking process and were very apprehensive in allowing religious discussions within the part of government building. Many early Americans worried about too close a tie to England as they saw the breakup of the Tudor family when tangled with the Christian Pope.

Nothing in America is new and everything is written up in books and journals but trying to locate some hardcore readers seems to be the problem.

Eve, we have the government we elected. We no longer take any responsibility for what we elected. Americans want a “Big Daddy” to take full responsibility and give us all a target to shoot down.

Seems silly to know that our species is developed beyond any other form of animal on this planet. We evolved above all other forms of life. We did not evolve equally as in the minds of many homosapiens, they are above those who are simply different. The key word is “simply” not to be misunderstood with darker, thinner, figuring out why we have sex……you know the whole bunch of bananas.

When I was growing up people admitted to being of a certain group superior to others. I was expected to openly deny any attraction to a person of darker skin or who worshipped a different god. I was also expected to look like a celebrity with my mother keeping tract of my measurements and skin color. What a sham! I even remember an Aunt who told me to stay out of the sun so I would not look like a member of Cain’s evil blood line. Well I was a beach bum and my many years in Malibu brought along wrinkles and more wrinkles.

As far as looking like a celebrity, I could have sworn Donald Trump was in my mirror this morning because that certainly was not me facing 79. Okay so some things are impossible. But! why is the discussion of freedom so hard to debate?

Could it be because our fears of the afterlife terrify us into following any large crowd who claim a connection with God? If this is the case, why be shy? Declare America to be a Christian Nation and then sit back and wait for that reaction…….We keep electing these Christian candidates and we wait for a miracle.

How much effort to we put into the education of our children? Every day I get asked how my kids vote. I don’t know! They do know the reality of freedom but they may have another plan. Do they even believe in God? I never asked. I sent them to Christian school so they would recognize the story line behind Monty Python. I trained them to appreciate Bach only because I could not stand another moment of the Greatful Dead..

Hi Sandune.
I lived in Santa Monica for a while.
I still (to this day) miss going down to Manhattan Beach and spending days hanging out, enjoying the weather.
CA has gotten waaayyy too expensive though. Packed up and left.

Woody188 … one would think his favoritism of another country would pose a risk to those who have no allegiance to alluded to foreign country.

America “should” come first. Apparently, most in congress didn’t get the memo and aren’t held accountable, thus ….. here we are, where we are as a result?

It’s just freaky how one can go to bed and the tea party is a bunch of local groups with no national leadership and all but ignored by the media but the next day is a national group led by insider Neo-con Republicans with national media spotlight pointing out how they are bound to fail and anyone associated with the tea party must be crazy.

I don’t think you get to be Minority Whip by going against Republican leadership, which means this is part of some calculated plan by the GOP and the forces they represent.

You are spot-on Woody. This is all orhestrated b.s. and I’ve decided to finally put the entire debacle on ignore. I really don’t give a rat’s butt if the whole paradigm crashes. I’ve taken care of my business to weather such a storm without the need for a “check in the mail” to survive. In fact I’ve been preparing for this for at least thirty years. So too, I don’t think the world is going to unravel post the deadline. This is similar to the Y2K scare that was a bust and the impending 2012 end of the world scenarios. There will be a financial unraveling of the world’s monetary system, but its going to start in Europe and then wash onto our shores although it was the crooked movers and shakers on Wall Street and the international mega bankers that created this destabilizing nightmare regardless of massive government debt.

It seems the outcome that will be amenable to all duopolists is to pass some cockamamie amendment that will give Obama the power of his “Kings X” concerning debt ceilings with a promise that the details will be discussed into the future, thus abrogating the Constitution and moving us ever closer to a Fascist police state that you reference in some of your other contributions to this site. We’re already there now, it’s just the government hasn’t had the opportunity to rough the population up via a declaration of martial law.

It appears that the Republicans are terrorist, and holding this county hostage. We are busy fighting wars in other countries started by republicans yet the real war is in our own country ironic isn’t it. Such a great country and politics and race will bring it down, its a shame. Cantor and the rest of his gang members are sent by The Devil to destroy our beautiful country. If we default then 2012 will be a way to voice our feelings towards all Republicans in this country. Furthermore, so many people will be hungry, homeless, and will die due to all the cuts and lack of services needed. If the .Republicans Tea party hate the poor and needy that much, then leave this country and go somewhere else. Your just a bunch of corrupt gangsters. You care nothing about this country or its people.